F1 Testing Silverstone 2009

[CivicMan]

Anyone with info if F1 testing is happening this year? Have tried Silverstone site and Googled without much luck. Even the PH search facility is down at moment!

[Cara Van Man]

theres an in season testing ban, didn't you know?

[CivicMan]

Doh! And doh again!

[chevronb37]

Last year was OK, except I had a crippling stomach bug and felt like death. Oh, and the fact that they only allow viewing on a chunk of the circuit. Seeing a contemporary GP accelerating through Bridge takes your breath away though.

[SRL Racing]

I though the testing ban came into force from 2010 not 09.The testing is so worth it was like 25 quid for three days of F1 BARGIN

[E30M3SE]

There was supposed to be an In-season testing ban for 2009 and onwards, but it may be reversed according to this.

[KJR]

Heard something on Radio 5, I think, today that Honda could be testing at Silverstone in the next couple of weeks. Sorry no more details, they also mentioned something about "Honda" may be using Mercedes engines after the official Honda backing runs out at the end of March.

Edited to add that most of this seems to be covered in the "Dave Richards taking over Honda" thread.

Edited by KJR on Thursday 26th February 20:13

[anonymous-user]

E30M3SE said:

There was supposed to be an In-season testing ban for 2009 and onwards, but it may be reversed according to this.

It would make sense to reverse the in-season test ban, but there's no sign of it really happening at the moment and I doubt FOTA will be keen to back pedal on their badly thought out idea.

[motco]

I emailed the circuit recently to ask about this and their reply was:

Silverstone said:

Thank you for your e-mail. Due to cost cutting measures in Formula 1, all teams have significantly reduced the amount of testing through the 2009 season and as a result have opted not to come to Silverstone for a test prior to the British Grand Prix in June. Therefore I am afraid that there will not be any F1 Testing at Silverstone.

[skinny]

uktrailmonster said:

E30M3SE said:

There was supposed to be an In-season testing ban for 2009 and onwards, but it may be reversed according to this.

It would make sense to reverse the in-season test ban, but there's no sign of it really happening at the moment and I doubt FOTA will be keen to back pedal on their badly thought out idea.

i thought the ban came from the FIA, and if FOTA come to a universal agreement, then they may go for a few in-season tests? but all teams are allowed 8 (i think) straight line / aero tests during the year, plus an unlimited mileage shake-down day, which is probably what the honda silverstone test will be.

[anonymous-user]

skinny said:

uktrailmonster said:

E30M3SE said:

There was supposed to be an In-season testing ban for 2009 and onwards, but it may be reversed according to this.

It would make sense to reverse the in-season test ban, but there's no sign of it really happening at the moment and I doubt FOTA will be keen to back pedal on their badly thought out idea.

i thought the ban came from the FIA, and if FOTA come to a universal agreement, then they may go for a few in-season tests? but all teams are allowed 8 (i think) straight line / aero tests during the year, plus an unlimited mileage shake-down day, which is probably what the honda silverstone test will be.

No, the in-season test ban came entirely from FOTA (as part of their knee jerk cost saving measures in the wake of the Honda pullout) and was then backed by the FIA who had no reason to oppose it. So we can assume the FIA are impartial to the in-season test ban, as they did not propose it.

FOTA and the FIA are still arguing about the details of the proposed 8 straight-line aero test days, but they are very likely to go ahead. The unlimited mileage shake-down day was part of the original test agreement and has to be taken before the start of the season. Renault for example have taken theirs today in Jerez.

The only other testing allowed (in today's plan at least) will be 3 Young driver test days post season. These were originally intended to be piggy backed onto existing tests, before these tests were banned! Now they are floating around on their own and likely to form a single 3-day test next winter.

I think the whole F1 test agreement is pathetic and badly managed.

[Joseph Jagger]

Off topic a bit but I can't wait for this to come back on BBC